Printed electronics startup partners with Holst

LONDON – Pragmatic Printing Ltd. (Cambridge, England), a startup developing printed electronic circuits, has started collaborating with the Holst Center (Eindhoven, The Netherlands).

Pragmatic is a successor to Nano ePrint Ltd. of Manchester, England which changed its name on relocating to Cambridge. Holst is an initiative funded jointly by IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) and TNO (Eindhoven, The Netherlands). Pragmatic's prototyping of integrated product concepts has been
accelerated by Holst's expertise in related fields, such as
OLEDs-on-flex.

Pragmatic is focused on making devices and circuits in printable amorphous oxide materials. The company did not indicate whether these are metal oxides but it has already completed a prototype printed electronic greeting cards for Hallmark subsidiary Tigerprint Ltd.

"Pragmatic's unique device structures and high resolution imprint process naturally complement Holst Center's existing expertise in materials and printed logic circuits. We believe this compelling combination will significantly advance the practical commercialization of printed electronics technology," said Gerwin Gelinck, Program Manager at Holst, in a statement issued by Pragmatic

Scott White, CEO of Pragmatic, said the company was excited to be able to access Holst's network of partners.

The greeting card for Tigerprint demonstrates transistor logic circuits on flexible substrates, integrated into conventional greeting cards alongside other printed electronics technologies such as conductive inks and thin film batteries, to create a dynamic flashing animation. This is achieved without increasing the thickness of the card, and without the complicated assembly required for greeting cards employing conventional electronics, Pragmatic said.

Pragmatic acquired the printed electronics business of Nano ePrint Ltd in 2010, including its patented technology for planar electronic devices that can be fabricated in a single layer of semiconductor via single-step imprint patterning. PragmatIC has extended this imprinting process to allow a range of device and circuit architectures to be printed in transparent, flexible semiconductors at the micron and sub-micron scale.

When the price goes down more, every device may be made through printer. The cost of making an electronic product will be substantially low. Will Electrical Engineering becomes a non-profession in the foreseeable future?